The Crete Cardinals will head out to square off against the Aurora Huskies at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Crete will be strutting in after a victory while Aurora will be coming in after a defeat.
Crete took a ten-run loss the last time they faced off against Platteview, but this time they managed to keep it close and that made all the difference. The Cardinals' pitcher stepped up to hand the Trojans a 2-0 shutout on Thursday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Cardinals have posted against the Trojans since April 27, 2017.
The result came thanks to Patton Svitak's shutout, as he gave up just three hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in 13 consecutive appearances.
Ethan Placzek
| 03/22/25 vs Fairbury | 3 |
| 05/01/25 vs Platteview | 2 |
| 04/28/25 vs York | 2 |
| 04/18/25 @ Fairbury | 2 |
| 04/25/25 vs Holdrege | 1 |
| + 8 more games |
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Ethan Placzek, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with two runs and two doubles. He is becoming a predictor of Crete's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is undefeated (and 10-11 when he doesn't). The team also got some help courtesy of Nick Wendt, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with one double and one RBI.
Meanwhile, Aurora lost 13-3 to St. Paul/Palmer on Thursday.
Aurora saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Dane Comer, who went 1-for-2 with one run, one double, and one RBI.
Crete is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 14-11 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Aurora, they have traveled a rocky road recently, having lost six of their last seven contests. That's put a noticeable dent in their 3-12 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
